Soul of Chogokin Pacific Rim Gipsy Danger – Toyark Photo Shoot

When Tamashii Nations first announced their Pacific Rim license, they revealed multiple size classes, with price points for every type of collector. For the high end market, they are releasing Jaegers in their highly detailed Soul of Chogokin line. The figures are meant to be Masterpiece level figures, with high levels of articulation, a large assortment of interchangeable parts, and numerous moving pieces throughout. The first figure in that line up is Gispy Danger from the first Pacific Rim film. That figure will be followed by Crimson Typhoon at some point.

The Gipsy Danger figure, which stands just over 9″ tall, features diecast metal pieces, LED light up function in multiple spots, interchangeable hands, plasma casters, two chain-swords, two chain-whips, a ship, and a figure stand. Bluefin sent the figure over for us to check out. After the jump, you can see my thoughts on the figure as well as a full gallery.

Soul of Chogokin Pacific Rim Gipsy Danger by Tamashii Nations

Pros

Outstanding sculpted figure

Beautifully painted

Great attention to details

Working piston, sliding panels, etc.

Good range of motion

Heavy, solid feeling with lots of diecast metal

Batteries included for electronic features

Easy to swap out parts

Great assortment of parts and accessories

Cons

Electronics prevent head from turning

Visor doesn’t light up that brightly

Overall The figure comes packaged in a collector friendly windowless box. The packaging features foil work and lots of photos of the figure. Inside, Gispy Danger is packaged in a styrofoam tray, while the other accessories sit in plastic clamshell trays. The figure and parts can easily be placed back in for storage. As mentioned before, the set includes interchangeable hands, plasma casters, two chain-swords, two chain-whips, a ship, and a figure stand.

After doing photo shoots of the first two waves of Robot Spirits Pacific Rim figures, I was growing a little tired of figures from the film. While I liked the first film, and have yet to check out the second one, it was never a movie I felt like I would get heavy into collecting for. So when this figure landed in my lap, I figured I would do a back-to-back shoot to get all the Pacific Rim figures out of the way. Unexcited would best describe my initial approach to unboxing this figure. So imagine my surprise that, by the end of my three hour photo session with it, Gipsy Danger is the clear candidate for my favorite figure of 2018 (and we’re not even half way through). Let’s dig in…

Gipsy Danger stands just over 9″ tall. Right out of the box, I was impressed with how much heft this figure has. Anywhere they could fit it, the figure has diecast metal parts, feet included. This helps to give the figure a nice balance when posing. You can use the included figure stand, but I didn’t even need it once. The figure has great articulation, which isn’t surprising at this price point. But what was surprising was the sheer number of moving parts as you adjust the poses. There’s working pistons, sliding panels, and adjustable pieces of the armor all coupled with a solid range of motion. Elbows and knees are both outfitted with double joints, making dynamic poses look even better. Really the only spot that doesn’t move much is the head. They use a reflecting mirror system to get light up into the visor, so the head is mostly stationary. You can adjust it a bit, but it’s not like the ball jointed heads on the Robot Spirits figures. Paint work is outstanding, with a wonderful textured metallic paint covering both the plastic and metal parts. They used a lot of printed tampos for additional detail work, such as the decals on his chest, the red stripes, and the more.

Hands swap out surprisingly easily, but snap on tightly with no fear of falling off. There are fists, relaxed hands, and grip hands for the detailed ship that’s included. Same for the chain-swords and chain-whips. You simply open the panels on his arms and can connect them above the wrists. For the plasma casters, the forearms detach at the elbows and the gun arms slide right on. There are light up features included with the figure. Batteries are inserted in the back for the chest and visor. Each plasma caster also uses its own batteries, and lights can be controlled separately for those. The light on the chest has some nice features as well. It can remain a static orange color, or you can lightly click the chest piece and have it cycle through blue, red, orange and yellow. It automatically turns off after about a minute, so there’s no fear of running the batteries out. There’s some piping and mirrors used to reflect the light up into the visor in the head sculpt. It’s not quite as strong as the chest or guns, but it is visible. Thankfully the batteries are included.

From top to bottom, this is an absolutely stellar figure. I went in not expecting to like the figure, but had a blast posting and shooting it. The display options are numerous, and it’s just a flat out fun figure to handle. At $250, the price point is going to turn some people off. But everything about this figure is high quality. If you’re looking for a definitive version of Gispy Danger, this is it in my opinion. See some select photos below and the full gallery after that.

I mean it does look pretty movie accurate, could use a bit more weathering but maybe some want a cleaner Gypsy Danger. The price point really is what ruins this for me. $250 is just too much, can get some really good Hot Toys for that price. At $250 this should have an opening cockpit with mini characters inside, more accessories, maybe a docking rig, something. Or if this was $175 I'd be more inclined to bite. Still holding out hope Bandai releases a model kit of this in a good sized scale, with a light up pack.